Chapter Two

 

 

Imara ignored the flopping synthetic mummies, the flashes of crimson light, and puffs of smoke-filled air. There was something in the ride that was adding to the creepy ambience, and she had only touched something similar once before.

Her senses went on the alert, looking for the accumulation stone.

When spectres began to lunge out at her, she knew she was close. Argus was flinching, but he didn’t break character.

As a spectre of an old woman lunged at her, she screamed and burrowed close to Argus, curling her legs up and onto the seat. She pressed her familiar and the panther onto Argus’s lap, and when they were under the mount for the stone, she lunged upward and captured it. The spectres ceased immediately, and she resumed her seat next to Argus.

“What was that?”

She whimpered. “Sorry I am so jumpy. The ghosts scared me.”

Mr. E climbed into her lap, and she pulled the panther in to cover him as they went from dim light and loud noises to red sunset and thronging crowds.

The mechanism unlatched the restraint, and Argus left the car, taking her hand as he kept his griffin under his other arm.

He kept his arm around her as they walked down the steps. The attendant looked at her with a frown. “Is she okay?”

“It’s her first carnival, and we started with the teacups. She’s enjoying the novelty.”

The attendant laughed; they headed back to the midway at a slow and steady pace.

Argus asked casually, “What did you catch?”

“A stone that shouldn’t exist.”

“Really? That is fascinating.”

“Are they following us?”

“Oh, yes. We are going to make the exit before they catch up though, or we would if you fainted.”

She smiled and stumbled. He picked her up and carried her through the exit, with folks murmuring in their wake.

Out in the lot, he kept walking toward his vehicle, but the multiple feet scraping on gravel proved that they had, indeed, been followed.

“Put the lady down and hand over the stone.”

Argus turned with her in his arms, and he looked at the humans who were demanding the stone. “I am sorry. I don’t know what you are referring to.”

“Your lady friend grabbed a stone in the haunted house. We need it back. It is a vital component of our operation.”

Imara looked them over and didn’t see a Death Keeper in the bunch. She murmured to Argus, “They can’t carry it.”

“Why not?”

“Not Death Keepers. It isn’t a soul stone; it is an accumulation of dying spectres. By themselves they are powerless, but together, they are a deadly force.”

The leader of the men, a surly fellow, shouted, “Enough. Hand over the stone.”

Imara kept her hand clenched, and she shook her head. “No. It’s fucking dangerous.”

Argus slid her to her feet, and Mr. E crept to her shoulder.

She stood with her hands at her sides. “I am not going to give up this stone. I don’t want your deaths on my hands.”

The guys blinked, and their spokesman said, “What the hell are you talking about?”

“You didn’t put this in place. It was done for you by someone who specializes in death. This stone was getting stronger with each screaming client, and soon, the mages would have been strong enough to do more than gather stray energy, and the people they would feed off are those who are close to it at a fixed proximity.”

The men looked at each other, and in the next heartbeat, full darkness fell. The XIA agents moved silently, and when the head of the thugs said, “Fuck it,” and charged, the extranaturals moved in and took over.

Argus lunged forward, but he dropped his griffin. Imara bent to pick it up, and one of the thugs tackled her.

She went down to the gravel with a thud. Mr. E went flying.

A grubby hand scrabbled at her wrist, but she didn’t open her hand. No one was getting that stone.

A low growl got the idiot’s attention, and Imara’s hellkitten had morphed into a hellcat once again. His eyes glowed with rich flames, and he grabbed the man clawing at her by the back of his shirt, flicking him away toward the parked cars.

He stood next to her while she got back to her feet. When she was standing and had the stuffies in her custody once again, she leaned on him and watched the zip-tying of the thugs from the haunted house.

Argus came up to her after glancing warily at Mr. E. “Are you all right?”

“Yes. I think so. I have a grip on the stone, and that is what matters.”

“Imara, your hand is turning black.”

She nodded. “I thought so. I am using my life force to wrap around the stone. It consumes me much more slowly than it does normal humans or other mages.”

“Consumes?”

Mr. E’s giant head lapped at her fist, and she opened it slightly. A moment later and her skin felt like skin again.

“What happened? Mr. E, what did you do?”

Her familiar looked at her with a smug demeanour, and he shrank back down into his normal fuzzy form.

Don’t worry; I can regurgitate it when we get to a safe storage area.

Imara flexed her hand and ignored the kitten climbing her thigh, dangled from her shirt, and continued up her arm.

When he was settled against the back of her neck, she turned to Argus. “Well, he has it. So, now, we need a place to safely store it.”

“Can’t we take it to a repository?”

“No. This thing is dangerous. Degraded spectres are worn down to the basic compulsions. They want freedom, power, and life again. They can’t have the life, and it makes them angry, so they take what they can. They have no intellect; they can’t be reasoned with. They are formless ghouls. Creepy fuckers.”

He blinked. “Right. Well, where do you suggest?”

“A Death Keeper made this, so until we figure out who that was, it needs to be safe from interference.”

Lio came forward and offered, “Why don’t you contact Ritual Space? They might have some sort of facility for storing powerful artifacts.”

Argus pulled out his phone and dialled. “Good evening, Madam Adrea. My name is Agent Argus Dencroft with the XIA, and I need your help.”

Imara got a slight smile as Argus went into detail on the phone.

Why are you so happy?

He asked for help.

Her kitten snorted and rubbed his head against her neck.

Argus turned to her and extended his phone. “She wants to talk to you.”

Imara took the phone. “Hello?”

“Hello, I am Adrea from Ritual Space. Who am I talking to and what do you have that needs our special brand of concealment?”

“My name is Imara Mirrin, I am a Master Death Keeper and a student at Depford College. The object that we need secure storage for is an accumulation stone. Some idiot Death Keeper has fused nearly a dozen faded spectres into one stone. This makes it an excellent power source for a weak mage, and it makes it a deadly weapon in the wrong hands. Until I can unravel and disperse the spectres, I need a safe place to put the stone.”

“Can you do that?”

“Oh, yes. I have an affinity for the dead.”

“How long will it take?”

“Well, provided that it goes smoothly, I should be able to disperse the mages in about eight weeks. I am a student, after all. It is a bit out of the way for me, but I can make it there once a week at your convenience.”

“Have Argus bring you in. I look forward to seeing what you can do.”

Imara smiled, though Adrea couldn’t see her. “Thank you.”

She hung up and smiled at Argus. “We are good.”

“Really?”

“Yes, she will help us.”

“How long can Mr. E hold that thing?”

“Two hours, tops. So, please, let’s get out of here.”

Lio called out, “What do we charge them with?”

Imara answered, “Possession and use of an uncontained artifact of mass destruction.”

Argus whistled and looked at Mr. E. “Right. Well, we had better get it somewhere safer. Get in the car, and I will get you to safety.”

She nodded and looked out at the sea of dark SUVs. “Um. Give me a hint.”

He walked up to one of the vehicles and opened the door. She hopped up and settled into the seat, buckling up and keeping her stuffed animals at her feet. Her live buddy she kept against her and kept a hand on as they left the carnival parking lot and headed back to the highway.

Her fuzzy buddy’s body temperature was lowering. His normally warm little tummy was approaching her skin temperature.

Ritual space was less than half an hour away. They would have plenty of time.

“So, what was going on with your hand, precisely?”

She flexed her fingers. “It was dying slowly. It’s an emergency response that I learned from Thomins. He was the one who offered me an apprenticeship, and he eventually pushed through my journeyman papers with the guild.”

“A good man.”

She snorted. “A man who liked to have someone to do the bulk of the maintenance on the spectre stones. He was a good friend, though, in as much of a friend as I had in those days.”

Imara continued, “He taught me to block energy from my limbs in case of a thirsty spectre.”

“Have you run into one of these before?”

She nodded. “Once. Death Keepers are given bonuses for clearing shattered and worn spectres from their memorial gardens or repositories. A friend of Thomins was filling in for a few hours while Thomins got some dental work finished up, and he took a stone out and showed it to me. I can only describe it as horrific. He had cleared out his fading section to make room for more spectres and stuffed the remaining traces of passed mages into the stone in his hand.”

“Let me guess, Thomins came in.”

“He did and beat the shit out of his friend. His friend dropped the stone, and I picked it up...” She trailed off, trapped in the memory.

“What happened?”

“The strongest of the spectres was leeching power from the weaker ones. They were all still there, the stronger roaring, the weaker screaming. The stronger one grabbed hold of me and tried to pull my energy out through the contact point. Thomins slapped it out of my hand, put it in a pouch, and called the authorities.”

She rubbed her hand in memory. “When the guild officers were gone with Thomins’ buddy, he started showing me how to defend myself against an accumulation stone.”

“Does it always threaten your limbs?”

She looked at him and reached out to pat his hand. “Only when there are other targets that the stone could choose. Contact with me revs them up, and pulling in extranatural energy is very easy for them. It is why Death Keepers were created as a branch of the Mage Guild. We are needed if folks don’t want embedded spectre stones to be draining life left and right out of all who pass.”

“Deadly jewellery.”

“Very.”

He grabbed her hand and kissed the inside of her palm. “I am glad you made it out, fingers intact.”

“Me too.”

She kept tight to Mr. E, feeding him what she could via their connection. Her eyes scanned the horizon and watched for the first signs of Ritual Space. When the lights of the parking lot flickered in the distance, she nearly cried. Keeping her Death Keeper face on was the key to getting through this, but inside, she was sobbing with relief.

When she got out of the car, she stepped toward the gateway, just in time to watch it swing open.

“Imara? Welcome to Ritual Space. I am Adrea Morrigan, this is Officer Hyl Luning.”

“This is Agent Argus Dencroft. Oh, and this is Mr. E, my familiar, and currently the fading containment of the stone.”

Adrea smiled; her snow-white hair and bright blue eyes glowed in the limited light. “Come this way, and we will find you a gateway to safe storage.”

Imara smiled gratefully. “Thank you. Mr. E, cough it up.”

She set him on the white gravel, and she supported him while he went through the standard feline retching noises before the crystal fell. Imara grabbed it and scooped her familiar up. “Lead the way.”

Adrea led them through the gateway, and Imara could feel the magic in everything around her. There was an outburst of life, and nothing could suppress it. “Wow.”

Adrea smiled. “Thank you. It has been the work of generations to keep it this invigorated. I am sorry; I made an assumption. Is this your first time here?”

“Yes. No apologies necessary.”

A white and blue flash appeared in front of them. Adrea nodded and crouched to pet him. “This is Blueberry. He is effectively my butler. He will lead you to the position he deems safest for the stone.”

“Don’t you want...”

“No, I don’t want to know where it is. Just follow the blue rabbit.” Adrea winked. “I will put a kettle on.”

Imara turned to Argus, gave him a thumbs-up and headed off in search of the bunny.